Top of the Morning: Malawian Soldiers Commit Human Rights Abuses; A Cholera Vaccine for DRC? 100,000 Displaced in Darfur

More evidence of war crimes by the Malian armed forces. “Malian government forces summarily executed at least 13 suspected Islamist supporters and forcibly disappeared five others from the garrison town of Sévaré and in Konna during January 2013, Human Rights Watch said today. Islamist armed groups in Konna executed at least seven Malian soldiers, five of whom were wounded, and used children as soldiers in combat. Although the Malian forces arrested and executed the men and dumped their bodies in wells in public view in broad daylight, military officials and gendarmes denied knowledge of the killings. Malian authorities should immediately investigate the alleged executions and hold those responsible to account, Human Rights Watch said.” (HRW http://bit.ly/14ubeOs)

A Cholera Vaccine for DRC?

Discussions are underway regarding implementing a cholera vaccine campaign in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the World Health Organization and MSF. “According to a cholera situation analysis released by WHO in September 2012, there were 22,792 reported cases of cholera in DRC between January and September 2012. There were 512 cholera-related deaths in the same period. The government is considering a roll-out of the vaccine, but some government health officials have opposed calls for an immunization campaign, instead pushing for efforts to scale-up water and sanitation programmes. ‘At the moment, we in South Kivu Province [think] immunization is not an emergency because a lot of work has been done to get clean water to reach more people there,” Jean-de-Dieu Mpuruta, an official from the Ministry of Health, told IRIN.” (IRIN http://bit.ly/11nD5N1)

100,000 Displaced in Darfur, Says UN

100,000 Sudanese have been displaced in Darfur due to fighting over a gold mine. “This month heavy fighting broke out between two Arab tribes over gold in the Jebel Amer area in North Darfur, displacing or severely affecting 100,000 people, the United Nations said. It had previously reported 70,000 displaced people. “Many of these people are living in the open in appalling conditions,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report.” (AlertNet http://bit.ly/11s6fdP)